Oakland’s first Startup Weekend focuses on black male achievement

That was the question posed by the organizers of Oakland’s first Startup Weekend. The international event brings together coders, designers, and others and gives them 54 hours to moved from idea to product. More than one hundred people gathered at the newly-opened Impact Hub Oakland to launch start-ups focused on black male achievement.

“The George Zimmerman verdict affected most of the world, but it was everyday as normal for Silicon Valley,” said Kalimah Priforce, co-founder of Qeyno Labs and organizer of Startup Weekend Oakland. “How do we, you know those of us who consider ourselves so smart and so brilliant and design savvy, how do we actually create apps that could save Trayvon Martin? Oscar Grant? How do we create apps across education, health, restorative justice, even gaming [so] that these young people don’t feel as vulnerable as the as the statistics show? ”

On opening night, more that 40 pitches were given, from social networking to criminal justice, and from wellness to street safety. Fourteen ideas were chosen.

Throughout the weekend, teams worked on ideas that included ways for former inmates to locate jobs that would hire individuals with criminal records to interactive games that would encourage youth to workout and eat healthy.